I really feel like I dropped the ball on this one. Every time I rread it over it just didn't seem to inspire suspense or stir me up like I hoped it would. Problem is I can't figure out how normal people talk, so I'm always wondering if I'm making the characters sound wooden. Half the time it eels like I'm just waffeling over the same thing over and over again. Oh well, hopefully you won't find it too much like eating a big plate of beans.

Tell me what you think anyway, with your input maybe I can improve. Ta!


A Disturbing Proposal.

The next morning.

The first thing to come to the young boy's mind was the sound of sirens permeating his ears, restarting his consciousness from his night's sleep.

'Is that police going by?'

Billy cracked open an eye, still groggy from sleep. His room was now lit by the early Sunday morning sun. It made him wince slightly at the bright yellow glare. Sometimes he vaguely disliked sunlight, and this was chiefly the time he did so straight after he awoke. Raising himself up in the bed he glanced to his window where he could still hear the sound of multiple sirens now fading into the distance.

He thought nothing more of it as he pulled himself out of bed, flexing his neck and rolling his bare shoulders, moving to the cupboard to select his clothes and made his way into the bathroom. He spent half an hour in the shower, enjoying the calming effect of the hot water running down over his tense muscles. All the worry he felt for Mandy's troubled state of mind and the madness that was overtaking the world all washed away with the relaxing flow over his body. Whatever fatigue and disparagement he may have felt from waking up became replaced with the same energetic reactor of fun and destructive glee he always fostered within himself.

With a confident smirk he got dressed and headed downstairs to start the day, ready to spread some kind of anarchy to disrupt the petty little lives of Endsville's many lazy and idiotic citizens. He stepped into the living room where his mother and father were already sitting at the table facing Grim, themselves often the targets of some of his more harmless pranks. Taking his seat at the he poured a bowl of something bright and colourful bearing a faint resemblance to cereal and chowed down with all the ravenous hunger of a nearly teenage boy.

"Hey guyfs. Hoifya Grib." He gurgled through the slush in his mouth.

"Hello Billy." Grim answered sounding dejected and miserable. Swallowing the sugary food Billy looked to see his companion looking as grim as his namesake as he balanced a cup of coffee in one hand while propping up his skull on the other.

"Busy last night were we?" Billy shovelled another scoop of his breakfast into his gaping maw.

"I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. I was up all night after… another job."

"Jeesh, dibn't mow swigin a big shtik waz so bmuch…" He swallowed the crunchy slurry of chemicals and dangerous toxins. "… effort." He scooped up another heap of cereal and shovelled it into his mouth, chewing loudly. From out of the corner of his eye he spotted his parents beside him. He noticed for the first time the look of concern on their faces, looking back and fourth from them with worry. He slowed the action of his jaw as he first began to sense that something was wrong.

Grim gave a long sigh of disparagement and ran his fingertips across his cranium. "Billy, last night Irwin and his entire family were murdered."

Needless to say Billy had now stopped chewing and was gaping wide eyed at him in shock.

He swallowed the sugary garbage and turned to him. "What! Killed? How! Why!" Grim had never seen the little goofball's face freeze and get so alarmingly serious so suddenly before. Billy continued to look to him for answers, eyes wide at the deaths of people who he had once been friends with.

'Looks like Irwin got what was coming, not like the rest of his family though.' A pit formed in his stomach as he thought of the loss of the good people. While Irwin's death made it safer for Mandy, Junior and he, his family was a different story altogether. He knew of how they had tried as hard as possible to turn the deranged boy around on the right track again.

"They were killed around seven last night. Irwin, his parents, Dracula and Tanya, they're all dead. I arrived just after it happened. Dracula was the only one who needed reaping because he was so stubborn."

Billy stood and paced quickly over to the television. Switching it on he immediately cycled through to the morning news, where upon it was confirmed, an image of Irwin's house surrounded by police coming up.

"-we can tell so far it appears the victims were killed between six and nine o'clock last night, as given by their loss of temperature." Spoke a pompous, buffoonish police commissioner. Billy knew the act well, he and his depraved colleagues wanting to put forward a front of professionalism for the camera. It insulted him that he would choose to do so in such a situation.

"So far we've yet to find a murder weapon, and the mysterious heart wounds sustained by two of the victims remains unexplained, though we have deduced that the other three were killed by a gun." From their spot standing by the television they each heard the sound of running footsteps approaching rapidly from outside.

Leaving the television Grim willed his scythe to materialise in his hand just in case as he moved to open the door, revealing a panting and worried Mandy. She looked severely shaken, so unlike her usually hard and controlling self, a clear sign of just how serious the matter really was for them.

"It's him isn't it, the guy who killed those people in Townsville." Her breathing was somewhat laboured. She had actually run the whole way to get here from her house upon getting the news over the TV just moments ago.

Grim nodded as he let her inside. "I'm afraid so."

"So he's here, now in Endsville?" Mandy's voice waivered slightly from a rare sense of fear as she thought of the mysterious, powerful killer. Billy rounded the corner upon hearing her voice. He suddenly found himself grateful that he could see her standing there safe and unharmed, knowing it could just as easily have been either of them instead of Irwin.

"I got dere immediately after it happened. Whoever did it was gone, but there were the same energy wounds to the victims' hearts, just like de ones in Townsville." The nervous trio sat down at the table as Grim explained, Billy now having forgotten his breakfast. "Irwin and his father were killed with energy strikes to the chest, while everyone else was killed by bullets to de heart."

The kids listened in silence. Though by now they had gotten used to paranormal threats, Mandy especially so, neither of them had never dealt with the death of someone close to them before, and it was a shakeup for them both. While Irwin definitely wasn't a friend of theirs anymore, the fact that they had shared a long history together remained, and their relationship with his family had stayed positive even as their son decayed into madness. For Grim it was the loss of Dracula, a childhood idol and partial friend of his which hit hardest. Furthermore not only were they one time compatriots but Irwin's house was just ten minutes walk from theirs. It was how close to home the killer had struck now that had them all so caught off guard.

"Why would anyone go after Irwin?" Billy thought out loud. "I mean I know he's a deluded asshole but I don't think that would make someone wanna kill him unless they had a personal reason."

"He was a vampire and a mummy, so it could be someone hunting demons or after his power or something." Mandy suggested, prompting a new train of thought. "If that's it then what about the Nergals? They could be next on the list. And what about us?"

"I doubt it. Dem oder folks in Townsville weren't powerful or special. Dey were just nobodies. Don't worry, we'll just wait for whatever's doing this to show itself, den we'll go blow it to bits if necessary."

"That would be a really stupid idea. If this thing ever comes after us then we'll probably never get any warning. We'd be dead moments after it revealed itself. What are we supposed to do then?" Mandy answered.

"Yeah, I don't wanna get killed in my sleep or ambushed when I'm alone." Billy added. "Plus we'd always have to keep looking over our shoulders. That doesn't appeal to me much."

"Billy in case you haven't noticed-"

"Yes, we're going to have to do that from now on anyway." Mandy finished, her apprehension giving way to a feeling of frustration. In the last half hour their lives had just gotten as tense as they had been in the hard times. All the struggle and hard work they had to go through to get this far had all been swept away, and for Mandy it angered her to no end.

"I'm going to call Junior." She said as she got up, walked to the phone on the wall and dialled the number for the enormous caverns located somewhere within the mantle beneath them. She waited a moment before it was answered.

"Yello?" A slightly British voice spoke from the other end, the voice of Nergal Senior.

"It's Mandy. Put Junior on." She ordered bluntly. Without fuss the elder demon called for his son.

"Mandy?"

"Yeah. Listen Junior, we have a problem. Something's happened and I need you and your family to come up here right away."

"Wait what are you talking about? What's happened?"

"Irwin's dead. He and his family were all killed last night." Mandy spoke without pause. It wasn't hard for her to sense her friend's shock through the line.

"They're dead! Who did this? Why?" His disbelief was clearly evident in his voice, though she sensed there was little apparent grief considering what a lowlife he had become.

"Listen, there's a chance he may have been killed for his powers. If that's it is then you could be next. You and your family should get up here so we can talk about this."

"Alright. We'll meet you there."

"I'll see you soon."

Mandy hung up the phone as Junior went to explain everything he knew to his father and mother. Within minutes they had boarded their drill car and were boring their way towards the surface.


Later that morning.

Billy and Mandy, Grim, Harold and Gladys were soon joined by the arrival of the Nergals as they gathered at Billy's house. Shortly after Mandy's parents Phil and Claire had also made the quick walk across to join them. A little while later and she heard another knock. Opening it she found Max standing there, his face somewhat more restrained than his usual optimism. She was perplexed, no one had ever called for him.

"Is what they said on the news true? Are they really all dead?" Billy and the others looked to the door as Mandy nodded and let him in.

"Does all dese people gathered here talking about it answer yer question?" Grim retorted. Max sighed and lowered his head as Mandy's closed the door behind him, the concerned group milling around the living room away from the television which still played the news softly. Raising the remote Harold pointed it at the screen, a flash of static interference crossing it before he turned it off.

"Do you guys know anything that I don't?"

"We're pretty sure it's the guy who killed those people in Townsville." Mandy spoke from her position at the living room table, immediately taking charge as she usually did.

"How do you know?" Max responded to her answer.

"Grim said there was strange energy left on the victims. Irwin and his father were killed with a blow to the heart using this energy, but the others were killed with gunshots to the heart. They were all the same, all precisely attacking the heart."

"It's de same ting as those people in Townsville, de same energy and calibre of bullet. Dere was no trace of de killer when I got there but apparently whoever did it just walked in through the door after Irwin's father opened it." Grim remembered the water on the floor going past the man's body. "The killer just walked in from the rain, killed dem, and walked out again with no witnesses. It looked like Irwin tried to put up a fight cause he was in his vampire-mummy state when I found him, but it looks like de killer made short work of him."

Everyone was silent for a moment in thought when Junior spoke up.

"So what do we do? We've got a professional killer on the loose and we have no idea who's next on the list."

Again there was universal silence.

"Maybe we should take a break away from home for the night, just in case whoever it is comes to pay us a visit." Aunt Sis spoke up. To her this whole turn of events, shocking and tragic as they may be, were something completely new to her oftentimes mundane life. The fact they were in danger bought a sudden kick of adrenaline, a giddy thrill and excitement she had not experienced since her high school days.

'That and the night Junior was conceived... Heh... Heh heh...' Her head was suddenly dizzy with somewhat sleazy thoughts about her husband. Nergal picked up on this due to the smirk across her lips as she eyed his figure up and down. Their son also recognised the signs with alarm and made to try and stop them before any humiliation could take place.

"What motel would take us in? You and dad won't have any trouble since there's no publicity on you but I'm known and hated across the entire country." Junior lamented dourly, hoping to break up their fantasies. "Everyone knows about Endsville's 'demon child'. They don't seem to care that I've saved their lives several times over, they just hate me anyway. Where are we supposed to go when I can barely set foot outside without getting a bottle thrown at me?" As unhappy as Junior's words were his parents still could'nt help but remain set on their own tangent.

"Well perhaps Junior could stay the night here if that's not any problem?" Nergal suggested with a sleazy smirk to his wife who returned it in full. Junior just buried his head in his hand in something similar to disgust and anguish, mixed together in a bucket, eaten, and vomited back up. His sobering story of woe didn't seem to have worked if the queasiness in his organs had anything to say about it.

"Oh that shouldn't be any hassle, we've had Mandy over plenty of times." Gladys answered them. "In fact we had her over just last week."

Mandy noticed Max turn to look across to her questioningly. She lowered her gaze away from his, slightly uncomfortable about the fact that she had started having sleepovers at Billy's again. She just wanted to enjoy the last days she had with him before she dropped him and went on alone. Surely there wasn't anything wrong with that right? After all, it wasn't like she enjoyed spending time alone with him. Thankfully Max looked away again, releasing her from the pressure of their collective scrutiny. She got the feeling he would be bringing the subject up again later. For now they went back to the matter at hand.

"Grim should stay over at Billy's house so if someone comes up there he will defend them. I can more than take care of myself so I have no use for him as a guard." She instructed, confident in her abilities to wake at the slightest hint of a threat, ready to destroy whatever danger presented itself.

"Alright, we'll pick up Junior in the morning." Nergal added "I'll ready the Nerglings at home so if anyone goes there they won't come out." He motioned for his wife to come.

"See you tomorrow son." He patted Junior on the head with a grin. Junior rolled his green eyes skywards.

"See you later dad. Have fun." He added sarcastically.

"Oh we will, heh heh…". They both ran off to the car, dropping the drill and racing off down the street in a hurry. Junior groaned in despair at his parent's antics. He somehow doubted what they did over the coming hours could accurately be described as 'making love'. Billy however giggled at his despair.

"Hee hee, you're parents are pervs." Suddenly he gagged with laughter as he continued. "What does your dad do with his tentacles?"

After a moment of simply unbearable silence Junior face planted into the floor, Mandy planted her face into her hands, and Max gagged and chocked. Everyone else's mouths just hung open as Billy roared with laughter, writhing on the floor while struggling to breathe through his screams and howls. Mandy tried to think of mushroom clouds before a very disturbing thought entered her head. Max appeared to have tried too late and shuddered in revulsion presumably at some unknown though likely extremely unwelcome image.

"Guuuhhhh…" Junior groaned pitifully as he writhed on the floor, stripped of the sophistication and dignity he usually carried himself with as Billy continued to shriek and howl in his insane laughter.


Afternoon.

Mandy's parents left a few hours before she did, leaving her to do little more than sit around Billy's house watching daytime television beside him, Junior and Max. Neither of them felt quite right to watch a movie or play games following the recent unsettling events. Later that day, when the sky over Endsville began to turn a dull orange with the lowering sun and smog haze, Mandy herself left to go back to her house where her parents were probably waiting for her authoritative presence.

Closing the door she noticed a small poster stuck onto the face of the wood. Pulling it off she examined the note with disdain.

'DEATH TO THE RACE TRAITORS!'

They popped up once a week or so, though neither of them had ever found out who was responsible. She tossed it aside contemptuously and resumed walking back to her house.

As she made her way out to the concrete path she heard the door open behind her. Turning she saw Max leaving the house and step towards her. She watched him approach, continuing on ahead as he caught up to her, walking alongside of her as she made her way back at her own steady pace.

"Why are you still looking after Billy?" He's nothing but a burden to you." Max questioned her immediately. Mandy didn't turn to face him, instead keeping her face set in an iron mask as she scowled straight ahead. "You've started having sleepovers at his place again, and you ordered Grim to protect him when you should have used him to protect you. Why?"

She shrugged slightly. "He's useful to me. He's a good minion and he shares my enthusiasm for burning things."

"Billy has nothing to offer you other than attachment. He's not worth endangering your life and your future when all he can do is bring you drinks." He retorted in a cool yet blunt manner, pressuring her as she continued regardless. "What good is he to you to warrant keeping him around?"

Mandy turned to give him a hard glare. "I don't have to explain myself to you!" She snapped angrily.

"I know you don't." Max replied as he relented somewhat. "I know you want to enjoy the last of you're time with him while he's still there, but all you're doing is just delaying the inevitable. That's not strength."

"I'll do it when I want to do it and no sooner, you got that?" She spoke with a threatening tone. Naturally however it didn't seem to work on Max, him keeping pace with her as she walked.

"You have to understand that the emotional attachment you have for Billy is a very dangerous thing for someone like you. The longer you wait around, the more time you spend close to him, the stronger that attachment will become. Every day you put off dropping him your chains get heavier. They'll crush you in the end." His words held weight and importance which impressed their message upon the girl.

Mandy knew exactly what he was saying, but the idea of actually leaving him right now made her uncomfortable. As much as she loathed to admit it she still wanted to enjoy the last moments she had with him.

"I know what I'm doing alright. Don't bother telling me what to do; you don't have control over me." She turned to keep walking, Max following beside her still.

"Mandy I know I can't demand you do this. All I can giving you is the right advice. My job is to make you see the truth, even when you don't want to face it. Now you already know what you have to do so I'm not going to repeat myself anymore." That said he walked in silence by her side as they made their way back to her house.

Stepping up to the entrance she paused and groaned inwardly again.

'DEATH TO THE RACE TRAITORS!'

Tearing it off she crushed it into a ball in her fist, tossing it into the bushes beside her, in which several dozen others lay. Opening the door she stepped inside, turning back to face Max again.

"How much do you want power?" He asked her softly. Her eyes widened, taken aback by the nature of his question as he went on. "How far would you go to get it?"

Giving him a questioning glare she gave her answer without hesitation. "I would do anything for power." Max nodded but continued.

"What would you sacrifice for power?" He spoke, drawing out and revealing all of her weaknesses from the cover of her control. "Would you sacrifice Billy?"

This time she kept her teeth clamped shut, staring into him hard as she tried to reign herself in and return her iron guard.

"I think the answer to that is obvious don't you?" She all but hissed out, her piercing icy stare warning him against any more attempts to probe her defences.

Relenting Max smiled and left. Mandy watched him walk away into the distance back the hour long journey to his apartment. She looked up to the sky, noticing the grey clouds above had started spitting rain again, the clouds moving to cover the harsh orange sky. The weather had taken a somewhat ominous turn the last few days, as if the invisible dark clouds just over the horizon were now overhead. She turned to go inside as she attempted to push the grim thoughts from her head and escape to some form of peace.

Max was deep in thought as he made the hour long journey back to his building.

'She's not going to respond to me simply advising her on what to do. Persuading her has failed. She's too stubborn to listen to anyone else. I need to take more serious action or she will never leave him.'

He did not speak a word to anyone or stop to look at anything as he returned to his grimy neighbourhood with his thoughts placed firmly on the matter at hand. On the outside he showed none of it, his face displaying the same carefree, light-hearted visage as he always did.


That evening was relatively quiet for all involved. Billy and Junior didn't bother looking for anything to do, instead they just sat watching television, Junior scanning through a copy of Time as the drizzling rain slowly increased.

"It feels like something's changed today doesn't it." Junior lamented as he glanced away to watch the drizzling rain outside. Billy didn't say anything, just watching the screen before him, an episode of Mysterious Mysteries playing. In truth though he couldn't have agreed more. The peace they had enjoyed the last few months was now over, and it hung like a heavy blanket over them both. Turning his head Billy also cast his gaze outside, the two youths sitting in quiet thought.

"Hey Junior." Billy spoke up. "What do you think your parents are doing right now?" Junior looked across and gave hin a revulted gape.

"Enough jokes."

Not far away Mandy was also gazing half-heartedly out at the rain pouring down outside. She was thinking about what Max had said, that it was time to let Billy go. The idea of just now dropping him like the lead weight he was still made her wince.

'But if I don't leave him soon, then I never will, and I'll fail in my drive for power. I can't allow that. I'll have to start letting him go gradually. Oh why have I become so attached to thats idiot?' She let out a groan and held the bridge of her nose in frustration. 'Why is this all so hard?'

Sinking down in the leather sofa she changed the channel of the TV, wherein she was greeted with more idiotic nationalist propaganda.

"Hey sweetheart. Another poster?" Her mother asked as she rounded the corner to her right, noticing her daughter's bleak state of mind. She gave a curt nod in response, never taking eyes off the screen as it gushed something about greater prosperity for all citizens before she muted it.

"It's nothing we haven't dealt with before. Why should we care what those insane little morons think?" She replied drawing a smirk to her mothers lips as her father joined them.

"We're gonna start getting dinner ready so what would you like? Sausages? Ravioli?" He asked her. She gave a wave of her hand.

"It's your kitchen."

Mandy's once cruel relationship with her parents had significantly improved in the past few years, though she still tented to be somewhat authoritarian with them whenever she felt they were stepping out of line, which wasn't often. She'd found that over time where once they'd been as materialistic and blissfully ignorant as most other people, they'd since come around to being far more active and driven in their work, and were starting to become more vocal against the injustices they saw happening around them. At times she almost felt a swell of pride for how they had come around, although she still kept their relationship cool and distant at all times.

Phil and Claire both left to go about their tasks, Mandy returning to the prior issue, bringing herself to look at the difficult situation reasonably. 'No, it can't possibly be that hard. It's just a stupid little friendship, something I would keep around out of nostalgia. Besides, I'm strong. I'm strong enough for this. This should be easy if I just look at it rationally instead of freaking out about it.'

Nodding to herself she settled in for the evening, looking out to the grey sky outside her window. 'Still…'

These convoluted thoughts continued into the night. She sat down to dinner around six. Ravioli again, she picked her way through slowly. Once she'd finished, savouring the last piece she handed them her plate and stepped away from the table without fuss.

She them made her way upstairs, procured a change of clothes for later and got into the shower, feeling the hot water open up her pores and wash away the tension she had been plagued by the entire disastrous day. The world always seemed a little bit less depressing when she was in the shower. After a relaxing half hour under the nozzle she got out, dried herself off, brushed her teeth, and fixed her hair up into her usual peaks without the headband. Putting on new underwear and her bike shorts she pulled on a short pink tee shirt which showed much of her arms and midriff, then made her way to her bed.

Lying back Mandy gently pulled the covers over her up to her shoulders and laid there in the darkness, taking in the feel of the cool fabric on her figure, the soft bed supporting her perfectly. She slowly began to drift off into the darkness, but was barred from complete sleep by a noise, an odd tap which echoed somewhere in the darkness.

She continued mellowing out in the cool darkness, but the strange, irritating tapping didn't cease, one taking place once every ten or so seconds. 'What is that? Is that some kind of insect or something? If it is I'll make sure it… no, it sounds familiar.' After another few moments thought she remembered from somewhere what the particular sound meant. 'A pebble on the window.'

Lifting herself up Mandy switched on the bedside light, slipped out of the bed and opened the curtains to the dark world outside.

Below her standing alone in the dark was Max, his happy smile permeating the shadows of the night gloom. It was an odd sight really, that he would smile when the world around him was steeped in deep darkness and a harsh cold. It didn't quite add up. She couldn't help but feel there was something strange under that happy exterior, though as usual what it was remained concealed.

"Max? What are you doing out here?" She called down in a hushed tone.

"Get dressed. We're going out for a walk." He spoke with an authority masked by his polite nature. It wasn't really a question, more an important command she should follow for her own benefit.

"What? Why? It's late." The sky was beginning to clear, but there were still no stars visible. The air was bitterly cold even on the inside of the glass.

"We're going to have a little talk, somewhere no one will be able to hear us." The thought of being alone, unguarded, with no possible witnesses…

'No, I have the scythe, plus I can trust Max. No one would take on both of us at the same time. This sound's important as well.'

"Alright. But if this is a waste of my time, you're going to be in an extremely uncomfortable place very soon."

She left the window, got dressed back into her day clothes and headed down to the darkness outside, careful to avoid making any noise as she crept down the stairway, opened the door and shut it behind her. Off to the side of the house stood Max, the pale moonlight illuminating his kind features before it became cloaked by the clouds rolling in.

"Where are we going?" She asked him, while the moon gave glimpses of its presence through the clouds.

"An old abandoned house half an hour from here."

"Why?"

"The nationalists know you oppose them, they could have this street under surveillance. There we can guarantee no one will listen in on us so we can discuss something in private." His voice held a soft and reassuring quality, but it still didn't ease the lingering anxiety she felt. "Just follow me okay?"

He turned and began walking down the pathway away from her and Billy's house. She followed him, barely able to see him in the darkness. The concrete surface felt foreign to her, as she could barely see it through the gaps in the street lights glow. Nevertheless she followed him from one patch of light to another under the dark sky. The lights in the houses were all out as everyone was asleep by now, the silence broken only by their footsteps on the concrete below them. Mandy again picked up on the rhythmic sense that accompanied the sound of Max's walk, the sharp taps of his black formal shoes striking the ground in a way almost intoxicating in its precise and even grace.

"You know Mandy," Max spoke up out of the still silence, "I have to say that after being around you more or less every day for the past four years, I've found you to have the most tenacious and persistent force of will I've ever seen in a person."

Mandy raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"You never get tired or give up, and you never back down from a challenge no matter how great. You have courage and strength. It's such a shame you let yourself go soft." Now Mandy was genuinely interested.

"What are you saying? Don't talk crap you idiot, I'm the same as I've always been." She retorted firmly. Max turned his head slightly to glance back at her as he continued onwards.

"Are you sure about that?" He asked, Mandy going quiet in thought as he continued. "You still haven't been able to take full control of your own sentiments yet have you?"

Her eyes flickered, darting away at the mention of her weakness whilst wondering how much he knew. Though he hadn't even been facing her he'd sensed her subtle reaction almost instinctively.

"I see the truth behind you. I know how desperately you try to convince yourself that you are in control, that you aren't attaching yourself to the people around you while trying in vain to will away the faults that are tearing you apart inside. I see how you try to wean yourself off the sentiments that keep you up at night, trying to gradually break your dependency on the care and affection of those around you, people like your parents, like Billy." He spoke in a relaxed voice, not accusing or heavy, just stating what they both knew to be true. "You let yourself become too content with your comfortable life, and it's made you weak."

His words said Max once again fell silent, leaving Mandy to think quietly on his short sermon. She narrowed her eyes, looking down to the black pavement beneath her feet as they went on, the only sound now coming from the ever-present rhythm of Max's sharp footsteps as she led him onwards.

And still she kept walking, following him blindly ever deeper into the darkness of the suburbs further out. From where she stood she couldn't recognise anything around her. This was an alien part of the city to her, despite knowing that she had probably been around here on some occasion. Indeed somewhere in the back of her head she felt as if she had been here before a long time ago, the memory having since faded. This unknowing state of wandering deeper and deeper into the ethereal gloom continued for just a short wile longer, until the clouds opened up and the moon shone its cold, blue-white light on an old place she had come to know well from just one event long ago.

The Doolin house stood out in the moonlight, far away from the streetlights, cloaked in the chilling grip of the freezing night air, each of its long since derelict features lit up in a ghostly mixture of pail blues, brilliant white and deep inky blackness.

Mandy stopped in her place looking up at the stark image. All throughout her body a bitter chill swept through, every hair on her skin standing on end for a moment as she regarded the place sitting just beyond the broken fence.

'Something's different.'

There was something about this place as it stood now that had definitely not been there when she originally came nearly five years before. The first time she'd come to this house she had felt the presence of something unnatural, something haunting, but only after the house had been revealed in its true state when she left. The feeling of something unnatural residing within was there now, but it was nothing like what she'd felt before. The house stood now like a chilling void in the fabric of reality, a feeling that inside its walls the warmth and light of their universe came to an end. For Mandy it felt like she was staring into the cold empty maw of a black hole, distorting and swallowing everything around it, sucking it all in where it too would join the unnaturally pail and bitter world within. She could feel it taking the gravity out from under her, pulling her into its far reaching gravitational field, her feet standing still while her mind fell into the well, falling into the madness beyond. Acting before it could swallow her completely she set her features, willing herself back away from the event horizon, managing to forcibly drag herself all the way back from the brink.

Max led her through a hole in the decaying fence, Mandy steeling her nerves now that she was free of its influence to follow him in, picking through the dry grass until they came out into an empty pathway. From there Max led her onward past the remains of an old scarecrow, to another path which led directly to the entrance of the decaying mansion, Mandy following him all the way just a few steps behind as he walked up towards it. Reaching the middle of the empty path he stopped dead in his tracks. Watching him closely she scrutinized and examined him suspiciously before he turned around to stare her straight in the eye.

Mandy's heart froze over. For only the second time in her life she was seeing the strange other side of Max, only now those bitterly cold, unnatural black eyes were staring right into hers.

"Do you remember what I said before, about how you are going to need a right hand?" Max spoke in a cold flat voice. Mandy just stared back silently, just listening.

"… Yeah." She answered at last anxiously.

"I have a proposition for you. I will be your right hand. Under your control I will serve you as your second in command and will work towards advancing your ambition. Once in power I will continue to serve your will and destroy any threats to your position." He put forth with an even tongue, his stone cold features betraying no hint of emotion.

Mandy was lost for words. She had never been faced with such a serious and momentous matter before. Though at its most simple it was an offer to join her, it was the finality of it, that if she chose wrong now she may never get another chance that pressed upon her. She soon found herself paralysed by the dark nature of the figure standing before her, and the sheer gravity of what he was proposing, all the while she found herself being drawn into the two perfect black voids looking into her, both limitless in their power and determination, and yet so absolutely cold and detached in their method.

"You want me to make you my second in command?" She managed to speak at last, recovering to some semblance of her usual controlled persona. "Why should I do that?" Max didn't react in the slightest to the anxiety buried in her voice.

"You've become weak with your attachment to Billy. You cannot succeed on your own anymore. If you try you will fail and be killed." He spelled out to her in a manner she could not quite bring herself to deny. "You need me. My loyalty to you and my combat abilities have already been proven in battle. With me at your disposal we can work together towards accomplishing your ambitions."

Mandy was disturbed by the pulsating aura of harsh and cold malevolence emanating from her previously pleasant and kind friend. And yet those two deep dark eyes so similar to her own held an intoxicating quality, as if she wanted to dive into the abyss and just fall endlessly into the darkness and power they held within. She could already feel it, making her feel great and terrible, powerful enough to rise up and crush the contemptuous free world under her merciless steel fist.

"But before I will join you there is one thing you must do first."

She held her breath. The moonlight was lighting up his face, the eyes as bitterly cold and unfeeling as a Siberian blizzard. Automatically she felt the hairs all over her body stand on end. Mandy could instantly tell by his hard demeanour that it was to be a serious sacrifice. Only one thing came to mind.

He spoke without a trace of emotion, devoid of any care or compassion whatsoever. "You must leave Billy immediately. Cut him out of your life. Sever all connection to him, and then I will serve you."

At the mention of leaving Billy then and there she gave out a long and shaking sigh, closing her eyes as she took a step back away from her friend. As much an opportunity it was she simply could not accept this offer. The way he stared at her in such an uncaring way gave her a foreboding feeling deep within, as if the lingering sense of paranoia she had occasionally felt had come and manifested itself. Her instincts of fight and flight were telling her to get away from what she was beginning to feel was a threat regardless of their history together. Max noticed as she began to distance herself from him, loosening the piercing stare he had confronted her with. Mandy saw the stone face of the stranger before her fade away, replaced by the benevolent features of the young man who had befriended her.

"Mandy," His voice was now kind and caring, a soft smile shown on his face once more, "I know you're afraid, I know you don't want to give up your friendship with Billy, but you more than anyone should know deep down what I'm saying is true. You have nothing to be afraid of. I know what I'm asking of you sounds like a lot to have to face, you've never experienced life on your own before, but there's no point in fearing what you don't understand. And even though Billy's been good to you for most of your life, either way you'll have to leave him sooner or later, and I can be far more use to you than Billy, Grim or your parents ever could be." He leaned in to look her in the eye once more with his kind gaze.

"Don't let them hold you back. You can be so much more than this, and I can give it to you…" From his side he extended his pale hand for her to take, a symbolic message of a union between two living bastions of darkness and power. "… if you'll let me."

But Mandy could not be swayed by his inviting gestures or the limitless potential his words promised. The welcoming expression in his eyes and face that had once radiated warmth and friendliness now seemed to her as no more welcoming than a mask, underneath which remained the same detached stare he'd scrutinised her with before.

"No." She stated firmly. "I don't need your help as you so blatantly put it. This is my operation, and I intend to do it my way. If I needed you then I would call on you myself. Don't ever talk to me like you control me." She sharpened her gaze at him as she began to turn away. "I'm going to pretend this little talk never happened so the status quo remains. For your sake you should do the same."

Max just looked back at her. His smile gradually slid from his face, a blank look of puzzlement taking its place. It showed not of hurt, but recognising and understanding of the refusal nonetheless. She turned away from him and willed her scythe into her hand and began channelling a small portion of its power through her body, her irises turning an orange-amber as she concentrated and drew the energy out. In front of her a red portal formed leading back to her room, towards which she made to step through.

"You're making a mistake." He spoke with a cold quality. Mandy paused and turned around to face him again, the rings of her irises still holding the spectral orange glow as she gave him a hard stare.

"Next time you want to patronise me I suggest you hold your tongue. If you ever call me weak to my face again, I'll take off your arm, then we'll see just how weak and spineless I've really become." Giving him a scowl she stepped through the portal right before it closed on itself.

Max watched her disappear without a flicker of emotion as high above the clouds again drifted across the moon, leaving the old decaying mansion and the silent figure beneath to be intermittently consumed in the cold dark depths of the night, until the moonlight pierced through again and illuminated the world in its ghostly glow once more.

'This is unexpected.' He had not anticipated his offer to be turned down, nor had he planned on how to deal with it. Now he was left with a dilemma. He knew the girl had no interest in taking him on board as her second in command, and by pressing his ultimatum upon her he had inadvertently made it very likely she never would. What was he to do now? What happened next?

After a moment's thought Max started forward and left through the paths, exiting the hole in the fence out onto the footpath again. Standing alone amidst the stark blue-white gloom of the world he cast his gaze back in the direction they had come, the rows after rows of lower-middle class dwellings each identical to the last extending all the way into oblivion under the streetlights and the cold light from above. He continued to stare dispassionately towards where Mandy had disappeared to, turning to look up to the deep night sky overhead. Mandy had commented to him once that the night sky was so much like them both, a perfect analogy for everything they each stood for.

He locked his eyes on the near full moon out in the open, a heavy band of clouds coming in to conceal it once more. It's eerie pail electric blue light shone down on the lone boy, constant, even, calm, controlled, cold. Whereas both Mandy and he were likened to the night sky, only he was like the moon.

The solitary figure gazed up dispassionately at the moon for a few moments more as the clouds moved across to obscure it, surrounding and engulfing him in an endless black abyss of quiet solitude, before he turned to slowly, calmly walk away, as if nothing had happened at all.


There you go, hope it satisfied. If not then I just wasted, what twenty minutes of your life? Heh heh! Tune in again next time cause next chapter everything that's been building will all come to a head when the proverbial Pandora's Box is opened on them all, and I don't mean the one they used in the show.